Patients with IC/BPS also had higher median normalized concentration of biomarkers involved in tissue repair, including MMP1 (p = 0.005), MMP2 (p = 0.0173), and MMP9 (p = 0.0205), growth factor HGF (p = 0.0205) and adhesion protein N-cadherin (p = 0.0024), as compared to median normalized concentrations determined in controls. The gene discussed is MMP9; the disease is Bartsocas-Papas syndrome 1.